©1999 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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4/25/99
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The Lord Is Near
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Philippians 4:5
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4/25/99 The Lord is Near
Phil. 4:4 ¶ Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice!
Phil. 4:5 Let your gentle (or forbearing)
spirit be known to all men. The Lord is
near.
Phil. 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made
known to God.
Phil. 4:7 And the peace of God, which
surpasses all comprehension, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:8 ¶ Finally, brethren, whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, whatever is
right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute, if there is any
excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.
If you are God's child
you know far more truth
than you think you know.
There are two very different forms of communication
that take place between God
and His people.
The type of communication
we are most aware of
is the conscious, intellectual communication
of ideas
in which we expose ourselves
to the concepts
and the truths
and the history
and the life examples presented to
us by God in His Word.
This is the heart of that learning process
in which we slowly,
gradually restructure our thinking
and reasoning patterns
so that they increasingly align
themselves more accurately
with the way things really are.
This is the process Paul talks about
in Romans 12:2
when he says:
Rom. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, so that you may prove what
the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect.
It's that process Paul urged Timothy
to give himself to wholeheartedly,
challenging him to:
2 Tim. 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God as a workman who does
not need to be ashamed, handling
accurately the word of truth.
It's this same learning process
Peter called all Christians to
in that remarkable passage
in II Peter 1 where he outlined
the progressive steps of growth
God leads us through in our
Christian lives...
2 Pet. 1:5 Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence, in your faith supply
moral excellence, and in your moral
excellence, knowledge;
2 Pet. 1:6 and in your knowledge, self
control, and in your self-control,
perseverance, and in your perseverance,
godliness;
2 Pet. 1:7 and in your godliness, brotherly
kindness, and in your brotherly kindness,
love.
2 Pet. 1:8 For if these qualities are yours
and are increasing, they render you neither
useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
...and to your moral excellence add
knowledge...
This learning process -
this process of mind-to-mind,
the mind of God to the mind of Man,
is the process with which we are most
familiar,
and most comfortable,
the one we understand the best.
But it is not the only one presented in Scripture,
nor is it the one that may have
the most significant impact
on the child of God.
There is another form of communication
between God and man
that serves a vital role
in the life of the Christian.
It is not the mind-to-mind communication,
but rather the Spirit-to-spirit communication.
It is that special means of communication
in which God tells our spirit
things our mind may not yet have heard
or may have heard
but not yet understood
or believed.
Paul talks about this kind of communication in
Rom. 8:16
when he says,
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God...
He also talks about this Spirit-to-spirit
communication
earlier in the book of Romans
in Rom. 5:5
when tells us that "...the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts through the
Holy Spirit who was given to us."
In his first letter
John refers to this special Spirit-to-spirit learning
process
with a rather remarkable statement
when he says in 1 John 2:20-21
But you have an anointing from the Holy
One, and you all know.
I have not written to you because you do
not know the truth, but because you do
know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
He tells us that
because we each possess
an anointing from God
we ALL KNOW.
Know what?
Well, we know!
In our spirit we know the truth.
And then he goes on to say
that it is because we already
know the truth in our spirit
that he now writes to communicate that
truth to our minds.
In other words,
his goal is to communicate to our minds
truths that our spirit already knows.
Have you ever noticed
the way in which some apparently simple truth
from Scripture
can suddenly touch you in a way
that just seems to transform your whole
outlook on life?
It deeply affects your emotions
as well as your thinking and reasoning
processes.
You find yourself saying to yourself,
"WOW! How could I not have seen this before?
This is incredible!
This is fantastic!
This changes everything!"
And then you try to share
what you've just discovered
with someone else
and it doesn't seem to affect them at all.
I believe those learning experiences
that have such power in our lives
happen when our mind
suddenly grasps some important truth
that our spirit already knows.
Our thinking, reasoning processes
finally line up with a piece of truth
God's Spirit has already told our spirit,
and the effect is like
getting the two lenses
of a pair of binoculars
the right distance apart
and suddenly we SEE!
Suddenly what was all just a fuzzy blur
comes into razor sharp focus
and both our mind and our spirit cries out
WOW!
Would you like some examples
of things I believe
God has already told the spirits
of every one of His children?
1. Your spirit knows that you have peace with
God.
Through Christ the battle is over.
Your mind may very likely
still be wrestling with fear
or anxiety
or apprehension,
not at all sure whether or not
you're really on solid footing with your Creator,
but your spirit knows the truth.
2. Your spirit knows that righteousness is your
friend,
and moral integrity and purity
is your strong and solid footing in life.
Your mind and your emotions
are very likely still fighting lies
about whether or not your needs
can truly be met within God's protective
moral framework,
but your spirit knows the truth.
3. Your spirit knows that God holds you
and your future secure
in the palm of His hand,
and that nothing an no one
can ever remove you from His love
or from His care.
Your mind is very likely
still living in a world of fear,
and anxiety,
and stress,
and confusion,
grateful for what God has done in the past,
but unsure as to whether
He fully understands Y2K
or whether He cares about your little tiny
life enough to be involved.
But your spirit knows the truth.
4. Your spirit knows that there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Your spirit knows that now,
in Christ,
God is not after you,
He's for you,
with you,
beside you,
in you.
Your mind, on the other hand,
may very likely still be playing hide and seek
with God,
assuming He's mad at you,
expecting His irritated slap
if you get Him ticked.
And the heart of Christian growth
is the process of allowing our Lord
to lead us through the sometimes painful
process
of bringing our minds
and our emotions more in line
with the truth our spirits already know.
I brought all of this up
because we are returning today
to our study of a passage in which
Paul lists for us
a number of truths our spirits already know.
But they may sound strange to our minds
given the nature of the context
in which Paul presents these truths.
You see, we have been studying
the New Testament book of Philippians,
a book,
or really a letter written by Paul
to help equip Christians
for the hard times in our lives.
It was written by Paul
when he himself was in prison in Rome.
He'd been in prison
for several years,
waiting for his trial
that could easily result in his own
immediate execution.
He'd lost his freedom.
He'd lost contact with nearly all of his friends.
He'd lost the illusion of control
over his own life,
and his own future.
Throughout our study of this book
we have called it the book
for the winters
and the prisons of our lives.
A book for the times when we hurt.
Those times in our lives
have some special risks to them.
The voice of PAIN
can be a very loud voice,
so loud that it becomes more difficult
to close that gap
between what our spirits know
and what our minds believe.
You see,
our spirits know the truth,
they know a God of infinite compassion,
and love,
and kindness,
and strength.
But when PAIN intrudes into our world
at first it can make it difficult
for us to hear with our minds
those things our spirits already know.
But here is the truly amazing thing,
the thing Paul has been illustrating
with every word he's written
in this remarkable little letter,
the thing he wants us to understand
about the pain in our own lives -
when properly understood
the pain and suffering we encounter in
this life
will provide us
with the highest platform
we will ever possess
for proclaiming to our world the love
and the kindness
and the faithfulness of our God.
And that's the message we have seen
the Apostle Paul illustrating
throughout this whole letter to the
Philippians.
He himself is suffering in prison
and yet this letter contains
the clearest, most powerful affirmation
and celebration of God's goodness
found anywhere in Paul's writings.
The single verse
that summarizes everything Paul is saying here,
the one that contains the phrase
he has repeated again and again
throughout the letter,
is the first verse
in the passage we have been studying most
recently,
Phil. 4:4 ¶ Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice!
In this passage
Paul is taking the heart of all he has been saying
through this letter
and distilling it down into a series
of short, powerful statements.
He wants to make sure
we understand the message
he's been presenting throughout the letter.
So far in our study of this section
we've looked at the first two
of those summery statements.
The first one I just read for us:
Phil. 4:4 ¶ Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice!
The second one we looked at
the last time we were in the book:
Phil. 4:5 Let your gentle (or forbearing)
spirit be known to all men.
And in our closing few minutes today
I want to share with you the third statement
in this remarkable list
of survival tools for hard times in our
lives.
It takes up just four words
in the New American Standard translation,
found at the end of verse 4:5.
It says simply,
The Lord is near.
Do you ever watch Jeopardy?
If so, you know the contestants
are given the answers
and they must come up with the correct
questions.
Well, if the sentence, "The Lord is near"
was an answer on Jeopardy,
I can tell you what the correct question would
be.
The question would be,
"Where is God when it hurts?"
The Lord is near.
It will help if you know
that the Greek word Paul selected
for that word we translate as "near"
has a double meaning in Greek.
It means both near in place
and near in time.
And as Paul has used the word
here in Philippians
it is impossible to tell
which meaning he intended.
I believe that was by design,
because I believe he had both of them in mind.
First of all He wanted our minds to know
that the entrance of pain into our lives
does not mean
we have been abandoned by our God.
Far from it!
In fact, Paul just states the truth
right up front -
your Lord is right here,
going through this with you,
right now and forever.
We saw this being illustrated
in a big way once again this past week.
Our national news media has been filled
with accounts and information
about the tragic high school shootings in
Littleton, Colorado this past week.
The events that took place there
have made our nation feel sick
with sorrow
and anger
and fear for our own children.
I have no idea how many of those students
were Christians at that school.
Probably not very many of them.
I do know, however,
that a number of them
are a good deal closer to their God now
than they were a week ago.
I was fascinated
with the interviews I heard
with some of the students
who were in that school
at the time of the shootings.
With nearly every interview
the student began with the words,
"Well, I just started praying..."
or
"I just started asking God what I should do..."
and then they went on to describe
how they saw God lead them through that
day.
One student shared how he began praying for
guidance
and then found a way in which to lead
a number of his fellow students to safety.
I remember one boy described how
he was able to find his sister
and her friend
and how he had them lay down under
one of the tables in the science lab
and then he laid on top of them.
The boy said, "I just figured if someone is going to
get shot
it should be me."
The evil we witnessed in that school
was straight from the mind of Satan,
but the suffering it produced
provided a number of those there
with the highest platform they may ever
have
for proclaiming the goodness of their God.
Where is God when it hurts?
Where is God when we cannot control
the things going on around us
or the things going on inside of us?
Well, the Lord is near...
He's right here with you
in your hiding place
under this desk in the science lab
as you listen to the terror
taking place around you.
We can and often do ask the question,
"WHY?"
Why did this happen?
It's a question for which we occasionally find an
answer,
or a piece of one.
But there is another question
for which the Christian always finds an answer.
"Lord, where are you in all of this?"
The Lord is near.
In fact, I noticed something this past week
I'd never seen before.
As you know,
the New Testament is filled
with hundreds of promises
God has made to His people,
promises that touch every aspect of our lives.
But do you know what the very first promise was
that the risen Christ made to His Church?
His first promise is recorded for us
in Matthew 28:20,
He said, "... and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age."
The Lord is near.
But there is a second meaning to that sentence as
well.
For not only is His presence near,
but so is His deliverance.
And here again Paul is seeking to disarm
one of the weapons Satan uses against us when
we hurt.
It's a lie,
but one that we are especially vulnerable to
during hard times.
It's the lie that nothing will ever change.
It is a lie designed to destroy our hope.
And Paul wants that lie defeated.
He wants us to know
that not only is our God with us,
but He is also fighting for us,
making our way in the wilderness.
The Word of God
is filled with this truth.
Ps. 109:31 For He stands at the right hand
of the needy, To save him from those who
judge his soul.
Ps. 138:7 ¶ Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, You will revive me; You will
stretch forth Your hand against the wrath
of my enemies, And Your right hand will
save me.
Is. 59:1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not so
short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so
dull That it cannot hear.
And in the New Testament
Peter said it so well.
1 Pet. 5:6 ¶ Therefore humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God, that He
may exalt you at the proper time,
1 Pet. 5:7 casting all your anxiety on Him,
because He cares for you.
1 Pet. 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the
alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls
around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour.
1 Pet. 5:9 But resist him, firm in your
faith, knowing that the same experiences
of suffering are being accomplished by
your brethren who are in the world.
1 Pet. 5:10 After you have suffered for a
little while, the God of all grace, who
called you to His eternal glory in Christ,
will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen
and establish you.
1 Pet. 5:11 To Him be dominion forever
and ever. Amen.
The Lord is near.